Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1887-04-09

monopoly to relieve a starving lahore
by taking the excessive charges oil hi
bread and fuel. Indeed, if the tariff
of railway charges be founded in an,
rule at all it is this: That all rate
shall be high in inverse proportion t.
the magnitude of the cargo, and tn
distance it is carried; the practica
effect of which is to grind the face o
small traders that the great ones ma.
increase in fairness.
The only argument they max
against the equality of rates command
ed in the constitution is hat they can
not afford it; that they must charg
higher for short hauls and ligh
loads, or else their compensation vii
be less than for the greater service. l
this were true, it would be no grount
OF justification. Bnt, in point of fact
it is wholly untrue. 1t is not NOR
difficult or costly to carry a hundred
tons for fifty shippers, than it would b.
to carry the same goods for one. Tn
expenses incident to the reception ant
discfa-@e of a cargo may be in greater
proportion for short hauls than to
long ones, but you can make that al
even by allowing them to charge il
addition to their mileage, for loading
and unloading. whether the haul b.
short or long. These terminal expens
es which they make so much ado abouI
are nothing as an excuse for the enor
nous excuses of their local rates, ant
they know that very we'll. Their rea
reason Is that they find it easier, safe
and more profitable to cheat a thou.
sand poor men, than one who is pow
erful enough to resist them, or ricl
enough to bride them. '
But they insist that they have
chartered right to do these things; tina
they have purchased from the state thu
privilege of charging unreasonable tolls
and making such determinations al
they think best for themselves without
regard to justice; that the state has
sold out to them the power of protect
ing the people against any wrong O.
that kind which they may choose tc
commit, and that the constitution
which forbids them is itself unconsti
tutional, because it lmpairs the obliga-
ton of a contract. Let us see whether
there be or not any truth in this plea
Ii the state had i'll express term:
authorized them to impose unreasona.
BILE tolls or taxes upon the people fol
the use of their own roads, the grant
would be void. Judge. Baldwin's
opinion to that effect in Bonaparte as.
The Camden and Amboy Railroad Com.
pany has never been denied or its
sonndness doubted from the day it wal
delivered to the present time. 70 give
the corporation a power like that
would be to give it the public highway
as private property; to arm a body OF
mere adventures with the police
to convert railroad managers from
public servants into public robbers
You might as well say that the legisla-
lure could sell the state out and out.
Upon the same principle. a grant OF
authority to discriminate between one
citizen and another is worthless. The
rights of all the people to be protected
against robbery and extortion are pre:
cisely equal, and the legislature cannot
barter away one more than the rest
that is to say, a wholesale bargain OF
that kind would be no worse than a
contract to sell the rights of individual
citizens at retail.
If, therefore, these companies had g
bargain with the state, expressly giving
them power 10 charge unreasonable Oh
discriminating frcights, it would be 9
mere nullity and of course revocable al
the will of the legislature
But no such contract was ever made
between this state and any railroad
company, at least | never saw an act O
incorporation upon which a decent pre-
tense of that kind could be set up.
You must remember that in a public
grant, whether of land, money el
franchises, nothing passes by construc
ton; the grantee at the very utmos
gets only what is given in express
words of witch the sense is too plail
To be misunderstanding goes b,
inference-no ambiguous phrase carrie
with it anything 10 swell the dimen
sions of the gift.
Now, where is the express grant o
power to take more than a fair ant
reasonable toll for the use of any rail
road? In what act of incorporation il
it stipulated that the state may not ad.
just the tolls according to what she, b.
| her proper authorities, shall deem
reasonable rule? The sole answer eve
given to this is, that in some, if not al
of the charters, there is q provision
torbidding the company to make an.
charge beyond a certain rate per tor
per mile, and from this prohibition
against taking they infer tn
right to take, in spite of the state, any
thing they please under that maximum
whether it be reasonable or not. Blu
it is precisely such differences that yol
cannot make; they are excluded b
the rule of Interpretation already men
toned.
Neither does their practice of dis
elimination find the slightest counte
nance in any words of the charters
When did you ever see an act of incor
poration expressly declaring that tn
company shall have power to make
difference between two citizens who's
legal and natural rights to the use {
the highway are precisely the same
Where do you find the words whic
ciothe any company with the, awtr
power to crush out the business of on
man with burdens which he canno
bear, in order that another, in whic
the railroad has an interest, may b
built up? But especially and particu
larly l desire to know what part of an
bargain with the state justities the e.
tortion of higher rates from a poo
man, on his little freights, than from
rich one on his great and valuable ca
goes? If you cannot put your fiDgt
on the very words that give til
authority, then the authority is with
held and the practice forbidden.
But that is not all. The limitatIo
of the charges to rates, perfectly all
uniformly prOportioned TO weight AL
distance, must be apparent to any Oh
who will consider the nature of ii
contract, the subject matter of it All
the parties to it. The Commonwealth
reserving the equal proprietary RICH
OF all the people to the use of the higI
way, agrees to employ d corporation
! her agent, to see that the exercise
the right by every citizen is proper
: facilitated, and never, in any case, in
peded, delayed or hiDdered. III
agent agrees 10 do this service at rat,
r which, in the aggregate. will be.
reasonable compensation for all Il
, labor aud expense OF it. As betwee
: the state, who is the employer, and Il
/ corporation, which is the employee. Il
. contract is All entire one-a lump ba
gain-an agreement TO do one who
job, which comprehends all Il
s carrying Tor the people on that his'
: way at q price for which the on
measure furnished by the contract
5 weight and distance. Whenever,
D those acts of incorporation, ANY menti'
I is made of rates, taxes or tolls, tn
: are spoken of as proportional to t.
e use made OF the road by him who pa